DhanushKrishna | Reincarnation

REINCARNATION

Temple of the Imperials

The Forbidden Temples

The Sacrificial Chamber Shot 2

Temple of the Imperials

1/9

DOWNLOAD

ENGINE: Creation Kit (Skyrim)

GENRE: Action / Adventure

RESPONSIBILITIES: Scripter, Designer

DEVELOPMENT TIME: 1 month

PLAYTIME: 10-15 minutes

OVERVIEW

"Reincarnation" is a single-player mod designed for The Elders Scrolls V: Skyrim. Inspired by Indiana Jones and other movies involving treasure hunts, the player embarks on a journey to the Forbidden Temples. A greybeard approaches the player to retrieve the forbidden scrolls. The quest takes place in the Forbidden temples containing a myriad of traps and dangerous enemies. The player can freeze time for a limited interval of time. The level design, traps, and encounters favor the use of this mechanic.

Overview

VISION: The Freeze time mechanic

Skyrim has a fantastic "shout" system which I enjoyed while playing the game. I wanted to make my custom shout that stopped time and use it as a mechanic.

I rapidly prototyped this mechanic in the engine and balanced the duration of the effect via numerous playtesting. Once I figured out a suitable duration period for the shout, I designed traps and scenarios where the player must use this mechanic to traverse. I built the entire level, encounters, and traps for more deep gameplay centered around this mechanic.

This action-heavy playstyle inspired me to go ahead with a forbidden temple style settings from the Indiana Jones movies. The shout is called YouDaMan.

Custom Mechanic

The level has many scripted events that are wow moments and provide the players with a sense of progression.
I scripted ambushes where the enemies come out of their graves and attack when the player collects objectives.
The scripted cinematics provides a feeling of grandeur adventure to the players.
Indiana Jones and other adventure movies heavily inspired these events.

The map has four parts: an exterior section and three interior sections.
Most of the gameplay, combat encounters happen in the interiors. The exterior has scripted events and critical plot events.
The three interior sections are aesthetically different as I wanted to convey that different communities in Skyrim joined their hands into burying the secret of the Forbidden Scrolls.
Each of the interior sections has traps, combat, and ambushes that motivate the player to use YouDaMan.

DESIGNING THE TEMPLES

DESIGN COMMENTARY

ENEMY ENCOUNTERS AND AMBUSHES

The enemies are deliberately stronger than the players. As a consequence of this decision, I had to make the combat regions spacious so the player can move freely and get can gets ample time to recharge the shout.
The player continually encounters enemies (Draugrs) protecting the objectives. Most of the encounters serve the purpose of reinforcing the mechanic.
Killing the enemies by luring them into traps using the mechanic was what most players used to do.
Players came up with creative ways to kill enemies utilizing their environment.

CREATING PUZZLES USING OBJECTS

For a fluid flow and pacing, I set up small, simple puzzles in the level. These separate the players from intense encounters and throw something different at the players to overcome.
I chose to use the "Claws" in Skyrim as these objects. These are objects with inscriptions and are used multiple times in the level.
These are essential objects that help the player progress in the level. They serve more purpose than just a collectible: a key, a puzzle piece and a way to advance and unlock levels.

USING THE MECHANIC TO OVERCOME TRAPS

I designed the level with various traps, and combat scenarios that require the players to use the time freeze mechanic.
The traps are timed and required the players to think and use the mechanic. Timing factor adds challenge to the otherwise overpowering mechanic.
I had to design the traps such that the player feels like there is no other way to navigate this space without freezing time. This decision received positive feedback during playtests and players enjoyed using the mechanic to overcome traps.
I placed the traps next to ambushes, so the players use them in creative ways. Players lured the enemies into the traps, and this made them feel cool.

Interiors 1: Temple of the Imperials

Interiors 2: Temple of the Nords

Exterior : Forbidden Temples

Interiors 1: Temple of the Imperials

1/4

SCRIPTED EVENTS

Design

WALKTHROUGH

Walkthrough

SCRIPTING

MAKING THE YouDaMan

My approach is straightforward: Skyrim already has a shout that slows down time.

I found the tools to create the shout and tuned them to one specific purpose: Stopping time.
To create my custom shout, I had to create my own "Word of Power" and "Shout."
Screenshots show the properties I manipulated. But, in general, I changed the magnitude of the slow time shout to a low value (0.01) and kept the active time to 6 seconds.
For conveyance, I added the blue FX on the screen which was the simplest one to convey.
Reducing the value to 0 would result in the game crashing so a simple fix to overcome the problem was not to make it 0.

This one was tricky as Creation Kit doesn't move the collisions when a static mesh moves/change its position.

Firstly, I had two models: One bridge that is moving and the other one that is stationary and hidden.
I had to replace the mesh on one the "Activator" class objects for the non-static bridge. Then make it move to an "XMarker."
I could control the time of the movement. Using this to my advantage, I could quickly switch the meshes.
To cover up the switch, I used the camera shakes which just hid the switch in plain sight.
Finally, I hooked up these to the "Claw Keyholes." Finding the claws that fit into these keyholes was the primary objectives for the players in the level.

RAISING THE BRIDGES

Skyrim is a massive world with a myriad of traps. I had to choose the traps that elevate the experience of using YouDaMan.

I had to search deep in the traps zoo provided by the developers. I managed to find this entity which toggles on/off at regular time interval which was perfect for YouDaMan.
I hooked up this entity to create a wide variety of traps.
Since YouDaMan slows the time, the particles spawned in some of the traps caused the game to crash.
The challenge I faced was creating traps that would not crash the game. I used a combination of different traps to overcome this hurdle.

CUSTOMIZED TRAPS

The ambushes added a new variety of challenge for the players to use YouDaMan. Combat while having stopped time was fun and the players enjoyed it.
I've used Draugrs as the primary enemies that the player faces.
Spawning them when a player picks up objectives were cool jumpscare moments.
The spawns are called in scripts when the quest advances.

SCRIPTING THE AMBUSHES

I made a multi-stage quest using the quest system in Creation Kit.
Added all the dialogs and made a quest giver to initiate a quest.
There were a couple of ambushes I had to cut out as it was overwhelming for the players with YouDaMan being active only for 6 seconds.
I've also made a side quest which is very basic that requires the player to explore the space. This involved making another quest giver and setting up the dialogs and rewards for the quest.
I have scripted simple puzzle sections for pacing and giving more reason to the Claws rather than just being an object for the players just to grab them and run.